#stopTDV

There are games about consent, abuse prevention, healthy relationships and more. Finalist entries are judged by a group of critics, developers and other gaming professionals, along with those engaged on the side of domestic violence and psychology. The contest’s only rule is that none of the games can have any on-screen depiction of violence. “We’ve seen tower defense games, art games, walking simulator type games, trivia games — most common are RPG,” says Crecente, explaining that the narrative format fits well with the topic.
Read the full article at The Hollywood Reporter

Rispek Danis, a free culturally relevant video game about consent was selected as a finalist for Most Significant Impact by the 2019 Games for Change Awards committee.

Rispek Danis, or the Respect Dance, is a serious video game created in collaboration between World Vision Vanuatu and Jennifer Ann's Group. It is a culturally appropriate game created for youth in Vanuatu, a country with high rates of sexual violence against women and girls under the age of 15. The game is narrated in Bislama, a primary language of Vanuatu and all dialogue, locations, and music are [. . .]

Millions of teens are in abusive relationships, and parents are often the last to know.

Few things thrill a 16-year-old more than being mistaken for a college student, and that was no exception for Jennifer Ann Crecente. Tagging along with her grandmother, Elizabeth Richeson, PhD, at APA’s 2004 Annual Convention in Honolulu, Crecente glowed when famous psychologists asked her what university she attended and what her major was. “She told them all she wanted to be a psychologist,” Richeson recalls.

Crecente, an honors student and hospital volunteer, never had the chance to realize that dream. In February 2006, her exboyfriend, Justin Crabbe, shot her in the back of the head and left her bleeding in the woods near her home in Austin, Texas. Crecente’s father, Drew, had no idea his daughter was in danger.

“I thought I was a pretty aware parent,” he says. “I thought I knew about the major dangers she faced, and I had talked with her about drugs, about sex, about strangers when she was younger. But I just did not have any clue that one in three teens were being affected by abusive relationships.”

The El Paso Independent School District has teamed with Jennifer Ann’s Group to help educate students about the perils of teen dating violence by creating a video to use as a teaching tool in the classroom.

The 20-minute video is presented by psychologist Elizabeth Richeson, and goes into detail about teen dating violence and identifying the potential warning signs. The video also teaches educators how to open the lines of communication with students.

“It’s important to educate yourself and understand what is and isn’t acceptable in a relationship,” Richeson said. “It is important to understand the reality of dating abuse and have a safety plan in place before you ever should need it.”

UniSA’s museum of discovery (MOD) is the setting for HEDONISM, an exhibition about consent featuring a real-world video game based on ADRIFT from Jennifer Ann's Group.

“Some data shows that young people are spending less on cigarettes, and they’re spending less on alcohol. Apparently there was another survey that came out recently that said they’re having less sex, too,” says MOD director Kristin Alford. “So then we were curious: what does give pleasure if those things are no longer seen as pleasurable for some reason?”

Technology provides some answers. The orb-like Hedonometer looms over the ground-floor gallery, glowing pink (happy), white (neutral) or blue (sad) in response to real-time data from Twitter. The emotions, or at least the expression of them on social media, prove mostly predictable – happiness peaks on days such as Christmas and Mother’s Day, while misery spikes after horrific events such as the Christchurch mosque shootings. The happiest day in the past 10 years, according to the data? June 26, 2015. It was the day the US Supreme Court legalised same-sex marriage in all 50 states.

Finding pleasure in activism and social change is a theme throughout Hedonism. In the Futures Gallery, visitors can download an app on their phone and enter a spaceship to “connect with” an alien. Pay attention to what happens when you touch it. You might hear an expression of pleasure, or it might be something more concerning. The message is hardly subtle: it’s been constructed to explore issues and attitudes around consent. The exhibit, which Alford says was technically challenging to put together, was inspired by the browser game ADRIFT.

Read the full article at Broadsheet

At GDC 2015, Drew Crecente of Jennifer Ann's Group spoke about the power of video games to prevent teen dating violence (TDV).

Teen dating violence (TDV) is scarily prevalent, and Jennifer Ann's group is a non-profit organization that works with teens in order to prevent it. Since 2008, the group has used video games to educate and raise awareness. In the talk, Crecente argued that video games may actually be the most effective pedagogical tool to prevent TDV.

"Evidence-based research supports the efficacy," of video games as a tool for preventing partner violence in teens, said Crecente. They can be used to support experiential learning and empathy-building, and they speak to teens in a language they understand.

Although video games are often regarded as mere entertainment, their ability to inform and persuade has become increasingly recognized over the past few years. One topic that has been in the news a great deal recently is consent and bespoke video games about consent are now available.

Video games about consent are an innovative and effective way to engage and educate young people about this important but sensitive topic. Jennifer Ann's Group has published its award-winning video games about consent and they are available to download and play for free: 'Stuck in a Dark Place' from Another Kind in Belgium; 'Crossing Boundaries' from Testudo Games in UK; 'How to Blorrble-Blobble' developed by Jared Sain in USA; and 'ADRIFT' from Quinn Crossley and Andrew Connell in USA.

Learn about and play these award-winning consent video games

On Valentine’s Day 2006, Drew Crecente called his daughter to tell her that he loved her.

It was a normal conversation, nothing unusual stood out in his mind. Jennifer Ann was growing into her own, and sometimes that can be difficult for parents. He asked her to be patient.

A few days later, the Atlanta man was told that his 18-year-old daughter was dead, shot to death by an ex-boyfriend in Austin, Texas, where she lived with her mother.

Read more about the work Partnership Against Domestic Violence is doing to prevent teen dating violence

Teen dating violence awareness charity Jennifer Ann’s Group has released the first-place winning entry in its 8th annual Life.Love. Game Design Challenge. The winners were announced in June. The Life.Love. Game Design Challenge encouraged game developers to create a game the promotes education and awareness on teen dating violence and prevention.

Read more about video games to prevent teen dating violence at Game Politics

Games can be an inviting tool to educate young people on social issues -- like how to recognize the signs of an abusive relationship, how to help a friend or to seek help for oneself.

Since 2008, Jennifer Ann's Group, an organization dedicated to raising awareness about teen dating violence, has run an annual game design competition, launching each February to coincide with National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month (I've acted as a competition judge in a couple of the years). Last year's winner, The Guardian, is available on the Android store.

Video games are often criticized for glamourizing murder, drug abuse and other criminal behavior. However, for Jennifer Ann’s Group, founder Drew Crecente wants to change the perception of video games by showing that they can be an effective way to reach today’s youth and teach them about the seriousness of teen dating violence.

With February deemed ‘Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month,’ Atlanta native Drew Crecente is on a mission to save lives.

Dating violence among teens is alive and real, and the statistics show a startling trend. In Georgia, the rates of teen dating violence mirror national statistics from the CDC with nearly 13 percent of females and 12 percent of males in high school reporting being physically hurt by someone they were dating.

'It’s a problem that many people do not want to think about, and so it is not discussed as often as it should be,' stated Drew Crecente of Atlanta.

'There was little news coverage of TDV until 2006 when the National Awareness Week began.'

Teen dating violence is a pervasive problem that affects millions of adolescents worldwide. Although there have been various approaches to addressing this problem, using videogames had not been employed before 2008, when Jennifer Ann's Group, an Atlanta, GA–based nonprofit organization, created an annual competition. The Life.Love. Game Design Challenge rewards game developers for creating videogames about teen dating violence without using any violence in the games themselves. The resulting videogames have increased awareness about teen dating violence and provided educational information to assist adolescents, parents, and teachers in identifying abusive relationships.

Read the full program profile about Gaming Against Violence at Games for Health Journal

Across the country there is exciting and innovative work being done to address teen dating abuse! This summer, our National Youth Advisory Board sifted through dozens of nominations and selected the top 10 Trailblazers. These Trailblazers are programs our NYAB found to resonate with youth experiences of relationships and were innovative in their approach, outreach, or youth activism. Each week of TDVAM we will feature programs that deserve recognition for this work, and encourage you to share these ideas with your own organizations or local activists. This spring, submit your local program on Break the Cycle’s website for our National Youth Advisory Board’s selection of a second year of Trailblazers!

Read the full article about Jennifer Ann's Group innovative use of video games to prevent violence from Break the Cycle

We've been making newsgames with the aim of engaging people with real world issues such as the war in Syria and the War on Drugs in Mexico. But games have become a diverse tool that is impacting on more that just the political arena - they are also going for the personal too. Into this interesting space comes 'Love in the Dumpster' - a game billed as a 'serious game about teen dating violence'. This unusually titled game comes from a design challenge asking games developers; "Can you design a game about Teen Dating Violence without using violence itself?"

Read the full article about making games for change to prevent violence at The Huffington Post

The sixth annual Life. Love. Game Design Challenge, aimed at increasing awareness of teen dating violence, has announced its winning entries. Overall winner is Love in the Dumpster by Jean Hehn of Belgium, followed by Janie's Sketchbook by Guts Rodsavas and Piti Yindee of GPTouch in Thailand. In third place is YourSpace by Paul McGee, Sam Gross, Lyndsey Moulds, Ross McWilliam and Kayfaraday in Ireland followed by What Kind of Monster is your Boyfriend? by 99Uno in Argentina.

Read the full article about video games increasing awareness of teen dating violence at Polygon

The Life.Love. Game Design Challenge asks developers to find fun ways to teach teenagers that relationships aren’t supposed to be abusive.

(The games are) more immersive than the average page of text, and they make a point with younger viewers who are wary, or bored, with top-down messages. "It’s something they can explore on their own. If they are sitting in a class in high school, they might feel uncomfortable raising their hand, and asking about the specific effect of an abusive relationship. It carries more weight if they see the game through the eyes of the protagonist. They can identify with that person, and it’s a dynamic experience."

Read more about the game design challenge to create pro-social video games to prevent abuse in teen dating relationships at Co.Exist

Earlier this year it was announced that for work done by Games for Health Project co-founder, Ben Sawyer, in serious games and games for health that he will be a SxSW Dewey Award Winner. The award is given to 10 people each year by SxSW Interactive as a memory to one of the original organizers of the event, Dewey Winburne. It is used to honor people who have used technology to try and improve the lives of others. As part of the award which he will receive on Sunday March 10 in Austin SxSW is donating $1000.00 to the charity of his choice. The decision is to donate the funds to Jennifer Ann’s Group.

Read the full article about games to prevent teen dating violence at Games for Health